250 THE BLACK REDSTART. 



in such high spirits as not to know how to contain himself, 

 taking frequently a long circuitous flight from tree to tree, and 

 back again, a dozen times, seemingly for no other purpose than 

 mere exercise ; but he never mounts singing into the air, like 

 the white-throat. There are yet many persons, I believe, who 

 consider tliis species to be " a mere variety " of the white-throat. 

 These two species diff'er from each other in size, in make, in 

 colour, in their manners, their habits, their song, in the struc- 

 ture of their nest, and in the marking of their eggs ; and surely, 

 " if all these circumstances (as Wilson observes, after making 

 similar remarks on two American birds, one of which had been 

 considered a ' bastard ' production of the other) be not sufficient 

 to designate this (the babillard) as a distinct species, by what 

 criterion, I would ask, are we to discriminate between a variety 

 and an original species^ or, to assure ourselves, that the great 

 horned owl is not, in fact, a bastard goose, or the carrion crow 

 a mere variety of the humming bird 1" 



THE BLACK REDSTART. 



Motacilla Tithys, Linnsds : Le Rouge-queue, Buffon ; Der Wislling, Bechstbin. 



Length five inches and one quarter, of which the tail alone 

 measures two and one quarter. The beak is five lines long, 

 very pointed and black, the inside and corners yellow ; the iris 

 is dusky ; the shanks are nine lines high, and black ; the upper 

 part of the body is dark bluish, or blackish gray ; the rump is 

 red ; the cheeks, throat, and breast, are black ; the belly and 

 sides are of the same dark colour as the back, but tinged with 

 white ; the vent is reddish yellow. 



The upper part of the body in the female is dusky ash grey ; 

 the under part ash grey, with a reddish tinge. 



The colours of this bird vary during the first eight years ; 

 the oldest ones, with the exception of the tail and wings, are 

 in general black, but deeper on the under pai-t than the upper ; 

 the very oldest have a greyish breast. 



Those a year or two old very much resemble the females, 



